


its tough to stay objective baby!

by dreamyrat



Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Drabble, Emotional Constipation, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Men Crying, toxic masculinity arguably LOL
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25746097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamyrat/pseuds/dreamyrat
Summary: Luffy and Zoro have a conversation after their fight at Whiskey Peak. More or less.
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 6
Kudos: 119





	its tough to stay objective baby!

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I’m not caught up! Just finished Skypiea
> 
> Just had to get this out. Wrote it in a few hours. Will probably make edits
> 
> Edit: I rewrote some things after rereading it back. Sorry if it keeps showing up again in the tag. I just couldn’t let it be. I crazy. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

It was stupid, really. 

Zoro wasn’t easily bothered by this kind of thing. After all, he did spend most of his childhood trying to fight his best friend who he, up until her sudden death, didn’t realize was his best friend. So, a supposed brawl to the death with his Captain? Pssh. Fine by him. 

Well, it would have been, if Nami hadn’t knocked them out first and sated their captain’s anger with information that was easy enough for him to chew on. Not quite digest yet, that would take a little more time, naturally.

He apologized- sort of. Not that Zoro was looking for that. He knew Luffy was just being stupid, and that eventually he would come to. Or Zoro would have died. The thought didn’t really bother him as much as it probably should have. When he set out on his own to achieve his dream, he was prepared to die. He just never thought it would have been by Luffy’s hand. 

To be fair, making friends was never on the forefront of his mind. There was Johnny and Yosaku sure, but they were more business partners than anything. Means to help him survive. Luffy was insanely, immeasurably different. He didn’t want Pirate Hunter Roronoa. He wanted Zoro, and he wanted all of him. 

It was pathetic really, how quickly he gave himself to him. 

Luffy sure had no issues with taking what he wanted. He absorbed Zoro’s anger like a retrofitted building under seismic stress, rolling with his energy. His inclination towards stoicism never seemed to bother him much because Luffy could see his gushy insides just fine, and easily scooped out a place for himself there. He could see Zoro’s refusals as veiled attempts at remaining safe, and that safe to him, also meant alone. 

So when he chose to sail away with Luffy in a shitty dingy to face the wrath of the sea for their hopelessly grandiose dreams, for the first time in a long time, he felt happy. He wasn’t just surviving anymore. He was feeling. Somebody depended on him. 

When Luffy accused him of being a liar at Whiskey Peak, anger shot up his back. Anger, he understood. That he could act on. That he could use as fuel for his fight, adrenaline a convenient cloud over his mind. It was the feeling after things had settled down that he didn’t know what to do with. 

The interim between islands was usually calm and much needed, especially after the information that was just thrown at him. Baroque Works, political coups, undercover princesses and Warlords of the Sea. That mixed with whatever the hell kind of vapid concoction his brain had been cooking up for him to sip on about Luffy, he felt stripped. And despite the fact that it was the perfect time to nap in the spring sun before the weather changed again, he couldn’t. No matter how hard he tried, sleep didn’t come. 

Which made almost no sense since he had taken first watch, and maybe second as well, in order to avoid Luffy and hands that had trouble keeping to themselves in the men’s quarters, and just conk out the whole day.

He didn’t really know why he was avoiding him, because again, it was stupid. He knew Luffy was being rash and idiotic by challenging him like that, assuming that Zoro was in the wrong. 

He knew dwelling on what he said to him in anger wasn’t fair at all. Even Zoro had stepped on his crewmate’s toes accidentally with an ill intentioned joke in the past. Zoro was far from a saint. Very far. So he understood Luffy, perhaps a little too intimately. When he looked at him, Zoro felt a terrible swell of guilt, because he prided himself on rolling with his punches. Figurative or otherwise. 

He opts to hide under the tangerine grove, and at least feign sleep for a little while. Peace doesn’t usually last long on the Merry Go. 

“Zoro,” Luffy pokes his cheek, oblivious as always. Perhaps peace was more of a commodity than he thought. 

“Usopp made us fishing gear,” he grinned, hands on his knees. “Get up and test it out with us,” 

“Later,” he grumbled, turning to his side. So much for his hiding place. “I’m tired.” 

When he didn't get an answer right away, he opened his eyes to Luffy settling down beside him. 

“Then I’ll wait until you aren’t tired,” 

Zoro groaned, turning his back to Luffy. It didn’t help. His eyes still burned holes in his back. 

Part of him wished Luffy would curl around him like he always had and doze with him, just to show some semblance of normalcy, just so he could get a bit of rest, but he knew himself well enough that in reality he would just shrug Luffy off. 

“I know Zoro isn’t sleeping,” he said finally. He wasn’t accusatory, just observational, like he was playing eyespy. 

Zoro said nothing, not willing to budge just yet. 

“Did Sanji mess with your sword polishing stuff again?” Luffy probed, apparently aware enough to see Zoro was upset, but not aware enough to pin it on himself. 

Zoro stubbornly continued to feign sleep. He just had to let this feeling pass and things would return to normal. Telling Luffy about it would be admitting his weakness. He understood why he did what he did and that was that. No need for discussion. 

He heard shuffling behind him, and he almost sighed in relief thinking that Luffy was letting him off the hook, until he felt a warm breath on his cheek. He was laying in front of him. Great. 

“Zoro’s not talking,” he said again, observationally. His thumbs touched Zoro’s cheeks lightly. Something acidic and knotted twisted up in his gut. He sat up sharpy, so Luffy’s hand fell to the ground. 

“Just leave me alone, Luffy,” he said, exasperated.

“No,” Luffy pouted. “Tell me whats wrong,” 

Anger flared in his chest again and he really wanted to punch him. Why did he have to make this way harder than it had to be?

“It doesn’t fucking matter! Go bother somebody else!”

“No!” Luffy shouted, balling his hands into fists. 

He tried to shove Luffy away but he sprung back into place with a snap. Luffy curled a hand around Zoro’s wrist, holding him there. The pressure made his pulse spike. He stared at the point of contact, and something in him, perhaps the last shred of resolve he had in his fatigued body snapped. He didn’t know if it was the exhaustion that made him speak, or his apparent inability to lie to his Captain. 

“You called me a liar. Of course I don’t want to be around you right now,” he said, voice threatening to crack. This is exactly the conversation he didn’t want to have. 

“Oh. I apologized didn't I?” Luffy sounded confused, if not a little flippant. More proof that Zoro just needed to grow up.

Zoro scowls. He finally met his gaze. “I wasn’t asking for that,” 

“Then what do you want?” Luffy tilted his head to meet his eyes. 

“Like I said, for you to leave me alone!” he was crumbling now, hands fisted in the grass below. Nami was gonna have a field day with him. It was better to just end it here before he said anything else agonizingly embarrassing. Why was it so damn hard to lie?

“No way! Not until you tell me what’s really bothering you!”

For a moment Zoro wondered what would happen if he let this sliver of Earth in this vast sea swallow him whole. Let long roots wrap around his neck and let worms feast on the gooey gray matter in his skull. Did humans make good fertilizer? Would the fruit be poisoned by his anger?

“You didn’t trust me! What kind of a crew can’t trust each other? You let your emotions get in the way of thinking clearly. You’re lucky Nami stepped in before I killed you,” Like vomit, the words surged out of him, and while it felt good to be rid of the toxin, his throat burned with acid. 

“Before you killed me?” 

“What? You think I can’t? You wanna go again?” 

“No,” the hand on Zoro’s wrist tightened. Luffy wasn’t smiling.

“Zoro’s right. I wasn’t a good Captain. The King should always trust his first mate. I’m sorry,” 

“I already told you. I didn’t ask for an apology,”  
he huffed, but the base of his nose was stinging him, signaling that he was about to cry. 

“C'mere already,” Luffy grabbed him by his shirt and pulled, and Zoro let himself be. 

“You’re so stupid,” he mumbled into Luffy’s shoulder, tears spilling over. 

“I know,” Zoro could hear him smiling. “That’s why I can’t promise I won’t hurt your feelings like that again.”

“I never said my feelings were hurt.” Zoro argued. Luffy continues, unfazed.

“So instead, I promise you can get mad at me all you want, scream and yell until you can’t anymore, and I won’t go anywhere until you’re satisfied. Okay?” 

Zoro fisted his hands in Luffy’s shirt, trying not to let a sob wrack his body. Luffy petted his hair gently. 

After all, Luffy was stupid enough to put up with his icky bleeding heart. If he wanted to rummage around in there to plug up all its leaks well- he wasn’t going to stop him. Not that he could. Maybe a small sliver of him didn’t want to stop him. He could keep that to himself. Instead, he smiled.

“Aye, Captain.” he sighed, holding him tight.

**Author's Note:**

> they fart together


End file.
